Today bicyclists take to the streets to test the new bike sharing program Minneapolis has to offer. The program, Nice Ride, offers users green bicycles at 60 specially marked stations all around the city. To rent a bicycle all you have to do is sign up on the website. You can register as a yearly subscriber (for 60 dollars), a 30-day subscriber (for 30 dollars), or a 24-hr subscriber (for 5 dollars). Both the month and yearly subscribers get a special key to easily access the bikes from the station. These bikes are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, between the months of April and November.

Nice Ride even provides users with discounted safety wear. Freewheel Bike offers 20% discounts for new Nice Ride subscribers. For safety, if you don’t feel comfortable riding the streets of Minneapolis there are classes you can take with certified instructors. These classes will provide you with key techniques for safe bicycle riding. You can sign up for these classes at: www.bikewalktwincities.org/ambassador.

As part of the grand opening, an inaugural bike ride from the Central Library down Nicollet Mall to Peavey Plaza took place today, where Mayor R.T. Rybak hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the Downtown YWCA bike share station. To continue the celebrations, on June 17, a forum titled “Cities, Bicycles, and the Future of Getting Around” will be taking place at the Uptown Theater at 7 pm. Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, an avid cyclist and the author of “Bicycle Diaries,” will join Mayor R.T. Rybak and others at the event.

It’s official.  Nice Ride Minnesota, Bixi and the city of Minneapolis are launching their own bike share program.  This system will be the nation’s first large scale non-profit bike sharing deployment, and this is a pretty big deal in US bike share circles.   The Minneapolis portion of the Twin cities received the necessary key approval by the city council recently, and now it’s safe to say Nice Ride’s dream of having a 3^rd generation bike share system in Minneapolis has been made a reality-the scheme is expected to be available in May 2010.

The pilot system calls for up to 80 solar powered kiosks dispensing up to 1000 bikes.  The kiosks will be centered downtown, uptown, and on the University of Minnesota campus.  According to Nice Ride Minnesota Executive Director, Bill Dossett, the system is designed to promote short rides.  Users can pay an annual fee of $60 ($50 for students) or pay by the ride, and similar to most other 3^rd generation bike share systems, users can unlock bicycles with a key card or credit card.

The project was funded by $1.75 million of the $22 million provided through Minnesota legislation to finance pilot projects that increase non-motorized transportation in Minneapolis and neighboring communities.  The project will also be financed by the $1 million donation from insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield, business sponsors, membership fees, and donations from the public.  In fact, CityRyde even contributed to Nice Ride Minnesota earlier in January.

“It’s an enormously huge project,” says Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak.  He hopes the system will entice people to make short trips across downtown for lunch or a meeting, reducing traffic congestion.  Fortunately for Rybak, we think his hope will become a reality judging by past bike share systems success.

As many North American cities are exploring the possibility of bike sharing, Nice Ride’s non-profit model will be of particular interest to the planning committees to see if it can be emulated in other cities.

Such funds are wholeheartedly welcomed by Nice Ride, which will be the first bike-share program of its kind to run exclusively as a non-profit entity.  Nice Ride will require $3.4m to rollout phase 1 of its program and will then need an additional $1.5m annually for upkeep.  So far they are well on their way; other notable financial backers include Bike Walk Twin Cities, a group that funds bicycle and walking projects around the greater Twin Cities metropolitan area, which has donated $1.75m to Nice Ride.  The City of Minneapolis, a founding partner in the Twin Cities Bike Share Project, will contribute $350,000 in start-up funding.

Nice Ride is set to debut in May of 2010, and will deploy 1,000 bikes at 80 kiosks across downtown Minneapolis, the Uptown neighborhood, as well as the University of Minnesota campus.   Many miles of new bike lanes, in addition to other city infrastructure, will be completed by the spring launch date to aid the deployment.  If the first phase f the program proves a success, Nice Ride will consider expansion into St. Paul.  In order to get the wheels rolling, however, the program is working  to release an RFP in the coming weeks so that it can single out a vendor and proceed with its planning.  Learn more about Nice Ride here!